Ship Combat
Pathfinder Ship Combat Module (for the Maras setting) Ships come on various sizes, and are made of various materials. The most common type of ships in the world are wooden sailing ships, but warships made of metal are becoming more and more common. Airships, while they have been around for some time, are just now becoming commonplace and popular. An airship of similar size will be several times more expensive than an ocean ship, but obviously, has many advantages – such as the ability to fly over land. All ships have a few basic stats: Structure (SP): This is the hit points of the ship. An average structure point value for a small, wooden ship is 1,000. Larger ships generally have more structure points, and wooden ships universally have lower structure points than metal ships in the same size class. Speed (Qu): This is the speed of the ship. Sailing ships generally have a higher (but more variable) speed than ships that rely on only engines, and larger ships are generally slower than smaller ships. Wooden ships are universally faster than metal ships in the same size class. Maneuverability (Mv): Maneuverability of the ship. Closely tied to speed. Wooden ships are usually more maneuverable than metal ships. Armor (AC): Measures how difficult it is to score a damaging hit on the ship. Metal ships generally have a higher AC than wooden ships. Spell Resistance (Res): Measures how difficult it is to hit a ship with spells amplified with a magic cannon. Ships can be equipped with a variety of weaponry, such as main cannons, subcannons, torpedoes, and special cannons. All weapons have a few basic stats: Power (Pw): The most important stat on a weapon. Given in a dice format, i.e., 18d10. Special cannons generally have the highest powers, followed by main cannons, torpedoes, and finally subcannons. Hit (H%): The accuracy of a weapon. Usually a bonus score applied to an attack roll made with a weapon. Action (AP): The number of action points a weapon requires to fire. For subcannons, each successive round that the weapon’s fire is extended costs an equal amount of AP to the initial AP cost of firing the weapon. Limit (Lim): Only subcannons and torpedoes have this stat. In the case of subcannons, the weapon’s Limit is the number of rounds it can be successively fired. In the case of torpedoes, the Limit is the number of rounds that the weapon can stay in the air before hitting its target. Crew (Crw): The number of crew members it takes to successfully fire this weapon. If you do not have enough crew, the weapon cannot be fired. Here is a description of each weapon type: Main Cannons are the most powerful cannons (barring special cannons) you can equip, and they have the most power behind a single shot. However, fire from a main cannon cannot be extended into subsequent rounds. Main cannons have a moderate action point cost and a high crew cost. Subcannons are usually weaker than main cannons, and cost fewer action points to fire, but they can extend their fire into subsequent rounds. Useful for concentrating damage into rounds in which you have a critical advantage. Subcannons have a low action point cost and a moderate crew cost. Torpedoes have power slightly lower than a main cannon, but more powerful than a subcannon. They usually have a low action point cost and require only a crew of one or two men to fire. A torpedo is fired on one round, and hits on another. Another weapon that is useful for concentrating damage into a single round. Special Cannons are unique, and usually extremely powerful, cannons that can only be fired in specific circumstances. Special cannons usually have an extremely high action point cost (usually three times or higher the number of AP required to fire a main cannon), but a low crew cost. A Magic Cannon can be equipped to a ship in order to amplify certain spells to attack enemy ships with. The action point cost of using a magic cannon depends on the spell being amplified, but the crew cost is always 2 + the caster of the spell. The Battle: Ship battles occur in turns, with each turn being a number of rounds equal to the number of player characters in the party. At the beginning of the round, the ship gains ‘action points’ equal to the added stat bonuses of choice from each party member (stats that can be used are dexterity, intelligence, or charisma). Most actions that can be taken require a certain number of action points – for firing a weapon, this is detailed in the weapon’s stats. For each turn, each player character can do one of the following actions: -Order Attack: attacks with a given weapon. This usually costs action points. -Evasive Action: the ship takes evasive action, granting a bonus to its AC for one round. This costs no action points. -Focus/Assess Damage: a character can focus, preparing for the next turn. This grants action points equal to the number of action points gained per round by the character naturally. -Magic Cannon: if the ship is equipped with a magic cannon, a character can attempt to amplify a spell through the magic cannon to attack the enemy ship, or enhance/heal her own ship. The action point cost of firing the magic cannon is equal to the level of the spell being amplified. -Special Cannon: if the ship is in the correct position, and has enough action points, you may fire the ship’s special cannon (if it has one). Both ships involved in the battle decide what they will do for each of the rounds in the coming turn. The ships then alternate rounds. Actions taken by player characters are sorted by their initiative rolls – players who roll higher have their actions taken first. For example: Bryce, Lina, Liess, and Ceral are on a medium sized sailing ship, in combat with another unknown ship. As soon as combat starts, the party’s action points are calculated. Bryce has a dexterity bonus of +3, an int bonus of +1, and a charisma bonus of +4. Since charisma is his highest bonus, the ship gains +4 action points per turn from Bryce. The other three add +3, +3, and +4 respectively, giving the ship a starting total of 14 action points to use for the turn. Then, the four roll for initiative – Bryce gets a 20, Lina gets a 13, Liess gets 15, and Ceral gets 7. Bryce, who will go first, decides to use his round to order the crew to fire the ship’s Standard Torpedo. The torpedo has an action point cost of 3, so 3 action points are consumed. He specifies that the torpedo will hit its target two rounds later (a torpedo can only be delayed by a number of rounds equal to its limit value. a torpedo must be delayed by at least one round). Liess goes next, and decides to fire the ship’s 3” Cannon, a subcannon. The subcannon has an action point cost of 2, so 2 action points are consumed. Furthermore, Liess wants to fire from the subcannon to continue in the ship’s next round, so he spends an additional 2 action points. Since the limit value for the 3” Cannon is 1, this is the maximum number of rounds that Liess can extend fire from the subcannon. If he was firing a subcannon with a limit value of 2, he would be able to extend fire for one additional round at the cost of 2 more action points. Lina goes next, and decides to fire the ship’s Main Cannon. This costs 4 action points. On Lina’s turn, the Main Cannon will fire at the enemy ship – in addition, the torpedo that Bryce fired will hit the enemy, and Liess’s subcannon will also fire at the ship. Using subcannons and torpedoes in this way is a good method of concentrating damage into one round. With only three action points left, Ceral decides to use the ship’s magic cannon to attempt to cast Lightning Bolt, a third level spell, at the enemy ship. Being a third level spell, this consumes the remaining three action points. For direct damage spells, the number of dice rolled is multiplied by a value given in the magic cannon’s description – it can range anywhere from 5 to 15. This specific magic cannon has an amplification value of 7. Since Ceral is a 5th level wizard, lightning bolt would normally do 5d6 dice of damage – through the magic cannon, it will do 35d6 dice of damage. Once all of the players have decided on their actions, the turn begins. Bryce makes an attack roll, factors in the weapon’s H% bonus, and fires the torpedoes on his turn, and then it is the enemy ship’s turn. The enemy fires a standard cannon at you. First, they roll for the attack against your ship’s AC, factoring in their cannon’s H% bonus. They roll a 14, and the standard cannon has a H% bonus of 3, giving them a roll of 17. This easily beats your ship’s AC of 14, and the attack is a success. The enemy ship would then roll for damage – 18d10 is the damage dice for the standard cannon, they roll and get 92. Your ship takes 92 points of damage to its structure. Liess goes next and fires the subcannon. First he makes the attack roll, as detailed above, and ends up hitting the enemy ship. He rolls for damage – 14d10, getting 80. The subcannon deals 80 damage to the enemy ship on this round. During the next round, when Lina fires the main cannon, the subcannon will attack again, making another attack roll and damage roll (if the attack roll succeeds). The enemy fires their standard cannon at you again, hitting for 96 points of damage. On this round, Lina fires a main cannon, dealing 20d10 points of damage if she passes the attack roll. Liess’s subcannon also gets another attack this round, and Bryce rolls for damage on the torpedo he fired in the first round (18d10 in this case). In this round, assuming all of the attacks hit, the ship does 52d10 dice of damage to the enemy ship. On the enemy ship’s round, they fire another standard cannon at you, missing. Final round, and Ceral uses the magic cannon to amplify a Lightning Bolt. Applying the amplification modifier for the specific magic cannon mounted on the ship, the lightning bolt deals 35d6 damage. In order to make the damage roll, Ceral must first succeed against the ship’s Spell Resistance value, if the enemy ship even has one. An attack roll using Ceral’s intelligence modifier is taken (note that magic cannons don’t have an H% bonus – using a magic cannon is the only case in which a character’s base attributes are taken into account when making attack rolls in ship combat). In this case, the ship in question has no magic resistance, and takes the spell, dealing 126 damage. The enemy ship focuses for this round, gaining +3 action points. The next round then starts, and your ship gains +14 action points. Since you ended the last round with zero AP, you only have 14. Note: the same weapon cannot be fired more than once in a turn, so the enemy ship had at least three standard cannons equipped.